STAFF RESOURCES

Minutes of July 13, 2000 meeting

Unicorn & Systems issues/updates.

IN LIBRARY. Records for materials with home locations IN LIBRARY have been changed and now have home locations corresponding to item types in WorkFlows. Some problems were discovered with edited records and these are being cleaned up. For about 2 weeks new materials arriving from TSB might have home locations already switched to item type (STACKS, REF, PER, etc.). These will clear up eventually, and staff should begin to see only IN-PROCESS books.

Missing Books. Systems is ready to produce lists of books charged to each MISS-LIB user prior to June 1999 in call number, barcode and title order. Staff will search the lists, discharge items found, share copies of the lists with appropriate selectors, and send the lists to Tracey Meyer, TSB, for withdrawal.

A second list of items edited to current location MISSING was requested. If items are found on this list, staff will edit current location to item type; if not found, staff will check items out to the library's MISS-LIB user.

CRIMJ. All CRIMJ items have been shadowed at the item level and no longer appear in WebCat. There are about 70 CRIMJ items currently charged to Rutgers users. Next week, CRIMJ term loans will be given a new due date (8/25/00). Borrowers of CRIMJ items will receive a special notice/letter requesting return of materials by August 25, 2000. Text of the letter was reviewed. RRS Reports for CRIMJ materials will be eliminated. All requests for CRIMJ materials should be submitted on ILL forms. ASC suggested staff and faculty (via lists) also is informed about the shadowed status of CRIMJ materials.

User Dataload. By the beginning of fall semester, addresses and expiration dates in the user data file will change:

Address 2 will display Apt. #s by themselves on line 2, and city/state/zip will display all together on line 3.

Rutgers email addresses will be loaded.

A 2-year expiration dates will be assigned to all current employee and student records loaded each week from Admin Computing.

The expiration date will be incremented annually. For example, fall 2000, spr 2001 and summer 2001, the expiration date will be 11/01/2002. Fall 2001, spr 2002, and summer 2002, the expiration date will be 11/01/2003. A 2-year across-the-board expiration date will expire employees and students who leave the university sooner, and yet allows for renewal of term loans if students take a year off. We will have an opportunity to review these changes in the test system during August.

We discussed the implications of loading email addresses. Users who have activated their email accounts at Rutgers will automatically receive email notices from the library. Staff will no longer edit the email field on RU-ONLINE records, as subsequent data loads will override any changes. Users who prefer to receive email at their aol accounts will need to forward their Rutgers email. We will no longer provide a paper mail option to users with Rutgers domain email accounts. We should still enter email addresses for Guest borrowers and others we register locally. Advance publicity in the form of a flier, on the website, and an insert in paper notices will be prepared for August. We're not yet sure if we'll be getting email address for UMDNJ students.

User Database Purge. In July, we will purge users with no transactions according to the following criteria. First, all users except Guest profiles with dateprivexp before today. Then, profiles of FACSTF and UMDF/S with lastattd 6 months ago; profiles of GRAD,UGRAD and UMDSTU with lastattd 1 year ago; and profile of GUEST with datprivexp before 6 months ago.

LOST-REPL user. Karen will alert circ_sub when the LOST-REPL user has been created. We will then start charging items that users have replaced with a replacement copy to the LOST-REPL user. Charge items that users paid for to the LOST-PAID user. A timetable for review and withdrawal of LOST- user charges will be developed. A MISS-TSB user has also been created to help TSB track lost IN-PROCESS books. Acquisitions staff may wish to request stack searches on circ_sub in future.

Invisible PINS. Karen explained that masking PINs is essential for security of the Unicorn database. We discussed how giving users' their PINs will change. Judy will alert circ_sub and present suggested guidelines. This change will be made in the database soon.

Circulation and Reserve statistics for June are needed for annual reports. Karen will arrange to post them.

Question about Properties settings-- MARC and Temp, which is recommended for circ on the fly, reserve brief records. Judy will confirm with cataloging and inform circ_sub.

Stf Notes/Pub Notes. We do not want to select Modify User to view Staff Notes and agreed both Staff and Public Notes should immediately display. Karen will make the change to the system. ASC thinks only one kind of note is needed anyway. So we will use only Pub Notes in future. To list notes in chronological order, please use "before" not "after" when adding a note.

Claims Returns: books at other units.

Staff at the first library contacted will initiate the claims returned process, and not refer the user to the library where material is "owned." Users routinely check out and return materials not owned by their local library, and it's important to give full service immediately and not needlessly put the user through the inconvenience of a referral to remote location.

We discussed and agreed to the following procedures when dealing with a "claims returns." This process, excluding the first step, will also be used for claims returns questions submitted to Ask a Librarian and answered by the Access Services AAL team.

Do a local stack search for the materials.

If not found, add a Pub Note to the user's record: "CL, m/d/y, LIB/Initials, 39030--"

Ask for a systemwide stack search of the item on circ_sub.

Provide the user with the name of the claims return contact at the item's owning library, who will be in touch with them.

Inform the claims return contact at the item's owning library by faxing a screen print of the item's record, annotating it with user information and any other pertinent notes.

The claims returns person at the item's owning library will then follow up with the user in 30 days if the book is not located and discharged. A standard letter, with additional notes about the user's personal situation, pricing the book, and describing options for replacement will be used.

Notices: review of text.

The phrase "if you do not respond to this message promptly" in the text of library notices is prompting users to reply to Systems Admin on email. We will change the wording and ask users to contact their local library or Ask a Librarian directly with follow-up questions about library notices.

Also reviewed the text of email message Systems staff send back to users when they receive an email reply to a notice. Rather than edit the message, we agreed to ask Systems Admin to immediately forward any email replies to library notices to the Ask a Librarian service. Access Services team members will then pick up these questions and respond to users.

Notes to only use the paper form during IRIS down time, and instructions will be added for users to check at their pickup library and not look on Self Services for status of paper requests. A different form for each of the 3 campuses (NB's will need pickup location) was suggested.

Other Items, Information Sharing.

The RRS driver position is open, anyone interested can contact Henry Charles.

Please check your hold shelves for interlibrary loans more than 2 weeks past due date and send them back.

Flood at LSM and response to save materials was described.

Please remember to follow new "RRS for Reserves" procedures: charge directly to the RESV-LIB, no holds, and ship directly to the Reserve Desk.

ILS will be interviewing for Borrowing Coordinator position soon.

Asuncion Ortiz has returned at Kilmer.

Karen and students are filling responsibilities of vacant Systems position (stats, barcodes, etc.)

Next Meeting: August 10th at Robeson Library in Camden. A 13-passenger van has been reserved; Dean Meister will drive. Contact Dean if you want to reserve a space on the van. Van will leave the Motor Pool on Busch campus promptly at 8:30 a.m., projected arrival at Robeson 10 a.m. Judy can also take passengers departing from Cranbury. We will make plans for lunch if all van passengers are able to stay.